


Summertime Woes

by InuShiek



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Hair, Hair-pulling, Long Hair, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:38:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7533094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InuShiek/pseuds/InuShiek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's summertime, and everyone is feeling the heat...especially InuYasha. Thankfully, Sango is perceptive and has a solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summertime Woes

**Author's Note:**

> It's summer here and I'm struggling to wrangle my own hair. This idea popped into my head and wouldn't leave....so......yeah. I wrote it during my free time today, and I haven't had time to proofread it rigorously. Sorry about that. Still, I hope you enjoy it!

Unable to keep his arms crossed, InuYasha lets them fall to hang at his sides. Allowing that tiny bit of airflow into his sleeves helps a bit, but not nearly enough. It’s so unusually warm and the air is all but dead. Sango and Miroku have rolled up their sleeves and tied them off so that they’re cooler, Sango has tied her hair up despite not being in her slayer’s armor, and Shippo is catching a ride inside the basket on Kagome’s bike. InuYasha refuses to push his sleeves up. He’ll look ridiculous, and he doesn’t have any strings to tie them up anyway. He can’t even take off his haori. It’s protected him for years, and it’s the only thing he has from his mother.

By now, he’s so hot that he’s been forced to slow his pace. That hadn’t quite been enough, however, and he’s wound up panting, trying to do so quietly so that no one notices. He feels like he’s slowly suffocating he’s so hot.

“InuYasha, is something wrong?”

The half demon musters the will to scoff at the monk. “Don’t be stupid, I’m fine.”

“I only ask because you are usually at the front, demanding we move faster-“

“But now you’re dragging up the rear!” Shippo finishes for the young human. “Get a move on, dog breath!”

“Mind your own business!” InuYasha barks, but it lacks his usual bluster.

“I think I know the problem here,” Sango says, handing her weapon to Miroku for safekeeping. She rounds on the half demon, and his visibly tenses.

As Sango approaches him, InuYasha takes a step back. “What’re you doing…?”

“Hold still.”

InuYasha turns and starts to leap to safety, but Sango is too quick. She grabs his hair and yanks him down to sit on the ground. “Hey! What’s the big idea!?” he yelps, trying to free his hair.

“I told you to hold still, InuYasha. Just trust me,” Sango says, loosening her grip.

Uncomfortable, InuYasha forces himself to still. It isn’t an easy feat with the demon slayer standing behind him while he’s sitting on the ground.

Satisfied, Sango sets to work. She gently rakes her fingers through his thick hair, and she can quickly tell that her theory was correct. The deeper layers of InuYasha’s hair are soaked with sweat. He’s been burning up in this weather and been too stubborn to say anything. She encounters more tangles than she’d expected, but she gently works them out as she steadily gathers up more and more of his hair.

“What are you doing?” InuYasha asks, relaxing against his will underneath Sango’s ministrations.

“You really should have said something, InuYasha,” Sango scolds lightly as she gathers the final lock of his hair up. She draws a cord from a hidden pocket and secures it tightly around the half demon’s hair, giving him a neat ponytail. “There, you should feel better now. I must say, I never realized just how thick your hair is. It’s no wonder you were so hot.”

Once Sango releases him, InuYasha cautiously raises a hand to investigate what’s been done to his hair. He finds it in a ponytail, neatly parted to accommodate his ears and leaving his bangs free. A tiny breeze picks up, and InuYasha immediately feels cooler. Air can hit his back, the back of his neck, and start to make it to his scalp. “Ohhhhhhh, _that’s_ what these are for!” he says, hauling himself up onto his feet. He’d always thought they were to keep hair out of the way during battle, but he’d never had that problem before.

“That’s part of it,” Sango says, eyes wide.

In fact, everyone is staring at the half demon.

“What else-“ InuYasha realizes he’s being stared at. “What are you all looking at!?”

Miroku is the first to speak up, but he sounds hesitant. “Uh, you just look….”

“Different,” Kagome finishes for him, a faint blush gracing her cheeks. “Do you feel better?”

“Well, I _did_ until you guys started acting weird!”

“InuYasha, you look fine, just different,” Sango assures him.

Kagome begins rifling through her bag, smiling as she pulls a mirror out. “Aha! Here,” she says, handing it to the half demon.

InuYasha accepts it, warily directing his gaze to it. He gasps quietly when he sees his reflection. With his hair up, he almost resembles his father in that painting his mother had….. Sure he’s lacking the facial markings, and the dog ears on top of his head throw it off a bit, but he looks like his father more now than ever before. “Feh!” he scoffs, downplaying his reaction by shoving the small mirror back into Kagome’s hands. “Let’s just keep moving. We’ve wasted enough time.” He pushes through the group, charging up to the front and setting a fast pace once again now that he’s cool enough to continue

\-------------------

By sunset, they’ve made camp for the night. It’s cooled off enough that InuYasha had untied his hair so that it’s down once again. After several unsuccessful attempts at catching fish, they’ve elected to eat some of the instant noodles that Kagome carries with her for evenings like this.

Miroku is stoking the fire so that they can set the water on to boil, and InuYasha takes the opportunity to crouch next to the demon slayer.

“Hey,” he says, unable to meet her gaze. “Could you….show me how to do this?” he asks, holding up the ribbon she'd used to secure the ponytail she’d given him earlier in the day.

“Oh, really? Certainly,” she agrees. She reaches up to release her own hair so she can demonstrate, but InuYasha catches her wrist.

“Not here,” he almost hisses before he stands and drags Sango along with him.

Sango gasps, but gains her footing to follow InuYasha out of the camp. “Why not? It’s not as though they won’t realize you’re doing it yourself.”

InuYasha growls, satisfied that they’re far enough away from camp now. “Because I’ve never done it before and I don’t want any of them getting any funny ideas, and don’t you repeat that!”

Smiling, Sango has the grace to cover he mouth with a hand. “Not a word, InuYasha. Alright, first things first, you’ll need to comb the knots out.”


End file.
